Justin McDermott was planning to attend Delaware Technical Community College before he was shot and killed on a Wilmington street in early November. His cousin, Chris Albanese, said he was going to become a mechanic.

"He was all about his cars and his family," Albanese said. "He really loved his Hondas. He rebuilt all his own motors. He bought them basically not running and built them from the ground up the way he liked them."

He looked goofy when he danced, Albanese said, and that was the point. Albanese said his cousin was funny and sympathetic, able to take the lead role in any conversation. McDermott was close with his mother and his grandmother, and his pit bull, Remi, was his best friend.

"The dog can tell he's not around anymore. The dog is not as upbeat," Albanese said.

Albanese said McDermott grew up with friends more interested in gangs and drugs than advancing their lives, but he said his younger cousin was trying to move himself away from those people before he died. Albanese said he warned him.

"He thought it didn't pertain to him. He thought it wouldn't affect him. Little did he know that it would," Albanese said. "If he knew or even thought something like this was coming, he wouldn't have been anywhere near his house with his family."